Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me
by The First Sight
Summary: The truth was found, but nothing says it was ever lost? The sequel to Children of the Mirror. Read Introduction, please.
1. Introduction

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_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

Unconscious and without dreams, our two favorite angels lay, with their wings spread out beneath them and their hands still clasped together from their jump through the mirror and back into the world they belong. The Black Wings looms near to them, dead for good this time; no more than a large canvas standing on end.

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	2. Chapter 1

_**Children of the Mirror 2:**____**Remember Me**_

...1st Part: Dark...

I was only barely aware that my hand touched something. There was cool skin against my palm. My fingers curled around what I subconsciously identified as a hand, assuming that this appendage belonged to someone I knew. Maybe even someone I loved.

But as I came more fully into consciousness and my eyes slid open to gaze at the person lying beside me... an ethereal being with long blond hair that glowed purer than gold in what little light there was... I realized my mistake.

Suddenly I was as wide awake as I'd ever been. Jerking my hand away from his, I sat up and hurriedly scrambled back to get as far away as I could from him. "_Krad_!?" I shouted in confusion and disgust. My voice dropped suddenly when the harsh echo of my voice bounced back to me in the empty room.

I looked around and saw just how empty that room was. There was nothing – nothing at all – except for Krad, who still lay unconscious on the floor, the Black Wings which towered above him only a few feet away, and dust. There was way too much dust in the place. It looked like it had accumulated for years over everything, completely undisturbed.

Hadn't we just fought...?

And it was too quiet. _Way_ too quiet.

_Daisuke! Daisuke!?_ I called to him multiple times, but there was no answer. _Daisuke, where the hell are you!? Answer me!_ "Daisuke!" My voice echoed again. I fought back the panic that was trying to worm its way into me. "DAISUKE!!"

What the heck had happened to him? He simply... wasn't there.

Krad groaned, and I glanced down at him again to see if he'd waken up yet. It didn't look like he had. His eyes were still closed. Something was off about him, though. His face was distorted with an expression that looked oddly like distress, and his wings drew in closer to his body. I thought I saw his fingers flex a little.

I was drawn to him. Standing over him, I just stared for a while, watching as his face relaxed again – mostly; there was still that discontent crease between his eyebrows and the corners of his lips curved downward just slightly – and he stopped shifting. I think he had been trying to find whoever it was he _thought_ had been laying next to him.

Stepping over him carefully, I examined the Black Wings uncertainly. There was absolutely nothing coming from the artwork. Not a bit of magic; not a speck of life. There was no denying it – the Black Wings was _dead_.

I looked down at myself in puzzlement, then at Krad briefly again. If the Black Wings was dead, then...

What would happen to us? Anything at all?

This brought back the issue of Daisuke, who was still MIA, as far as I knew. "Daisuke!" I called again, trying that one last time.

Silence.

"Hiwatari!" I shouted next.

He was missing, too, unless something had happened to me that hadn't happened to Krad. And just what was it that had happened? I could have sworn we were supposed to be sealed by now. So why weren't we? Had it screwed up somehow and sealed Daisuke and Hiwatari instead?

I waved that thought away almost immediately. It was absolutely ridiculous. And stupid.

Leaving the sleeping Krad lay, I decided that it was time to head home.

. . .

I walked through the front door of the Niwa house, pulling my wings in closer to my back in order to fit them through it. "Emiko!" I yelled, pushing my hair out of my eyes just to have it fall back again. "Daisuke is –"

"Dark...!?"

"... missing..." I finished my sentence lamely, thoroughly confused and a bit stunned.

There stood Daisuke, wide-eyed and just as puzzled and disbelieving as I was. Emiko came running up behind him, followed by Kosuke, Daikii, Towa, and even With, who jumped up into my arms.

"What are you doing here?" Daisuke wondered. "I mean... you..." he spluttered.

"What are you talking about? I live here, don't I?" I looked around at all their mixed expressions. They were glad to see me, but they were also just as confused and shocked as Daisuke. "What's going on?" I demanded.

Obviously, there was something vital I didn't know about.

And did Daisuke look... older?

Nothing was making any sense.


	3. Chapter 2

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...2nd Part: Krad...

I had the feeling I was missing something. My eyelids were heavy still with sleep, so I didn't bother trying to open them. I groaned, groping the ground next to me to try to find something that just wasn't there. There was an odd warmth lingering in my hand that I couldn't explain, but it was the source of this dread that I'd lost.

What _had_ I lost?

I lay still for a while, trying to collect my thoughts and the rest of my consciousness. I listened to the silence... there was too much of it. Everything was too calm.

Forcing my eyes open, I turned my head to the side. Maybe I would be able to see whatever it was I'd been looking for. There was nothing there, except for perhaps a disruption in the layer of dust over everything. I frowned, confused.

Sitting up and turning to the other side to see more of the room, I realized that I was the only one there. That would explain the silence...

But there was another silence. A deeper silence.

"Satoshi?" I called quietly. "Satoshi."

There was no answer. There was no arguing, no resistance. Somehow, Satoshi was gone. I touched my chest, my arms, my face... All mine. _Only _mine. Satoshi was no more. A smile slid across my face, slowly pulling up the corners of my lips.

The smile faded, giving way to a look of puzzlement. An artwork towered over me; one I recognized – the Black Wings. I reached out to it, placing my palm flat on its surface with my fingers spread. Nothing happened, and I noticed that the piece was dead.

I pulled my hand away again and stood up, brushing some dust off of my pants. I had no idea what I would do now. Do I go after Dark? Do I not? I didn't know.

As I thought more about the thief, I began to remember why I would be where I was. The two of us had almost been sealed away... but I wasn't. Dark wasn't here. Could he have somehow been sealed without me?

I felt decidedly empty. Dark was gone. Satoshi was gone. I didn't know what to do with myself.

. . .


	4. Chapter 3

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...3rd Part: Dark...

What had happened, as Kosuke, Emiko, and Daikii managed to figure out and tell me, was that Krad and I had in fact been sealed in the Black Wings – for just a little bit over two years. Daisuke was sixteen, now. They couldn't figure out why I would have been able to get out of the artwork again, however. And much less why I alone would have escaped when the piece died. I hadn't told them yet that Krad was back, too. I didn't think Emiko would take that too well – neither would Daikii, probably. So I thought it best to keep that tidbit of information to myself for now.

I was wondering why I wouldn't have remembered being sealed away. It was as if time had froze – sort of like it had in Freedert's world within the Second Hand of Time and Daisuke's painting.

They continued on, to update me on what had happened during my couple years of absence. Riku and Daisuke were still together, Daisuke could drive now – good for him – and Satoshi was still Commander for the police force. None of it really surprised me, nor had anything really changed that much.

The phone rang. Something else relatively normal.

Daisuke ran to get it. "Hello?" There was a pause. "Of course! ...What? – No, that's fine. ...Yes. ...Great. Uhm... no. ...I'll be right there." He hung up the phone and turned back to us, rubbing the back of his neck in that embarrassed look he obviously hadn't outgrown. "That was Riku," he explained, grabbing a coat as he made his way to the door. "Double date."

"Alright, well... have fun, Dai," Emiko said.

I just got back, and now Daisuke was running off already. It was kind of funny; ironic, almost. But then another thought crossed my mind. "Hey Daisuke!"

"Yeah?"

"Who's going with you?" I wondered.

Daisuke looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"You said it was a double date," I reminded him. "Who're the other two?"

"Oh!" He had that embarrassed face again for a moment. "Oh, geez – I'm late already! Risa and Satoshi," he answered me quickly before rushing out the door.

Everything was silent except for the click of the door knob locking back into place.

_Risa_ was with _Satoshi_ now!? Talk about betrayal! Did she even know that he'd been the one out to get me this whole time?

I hid my gloominess from everyone who was still in my company, pretending that this news didn't affect me. I couldn't tell whether anyone noticed anyway or not.

"Sorry Dai had to run off so fast," Emiko said, cheerfully adding, "It's really great to have you back home again."


	5. Chapter 4

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...4th Part: Krad...

I wandered the streets, my hands in my pockets, just aimlessly travelling around Azumano. It was late; the sky was dark and stars were trying to break through the black sky. I started thinking about what my plan had actually been before. Why _was_ it that I had tried to kill Dark and his tamer? It sounded ridiculous to me, now.

I heard a sound – laughter. I turned my head toward it, stopping to listen for a while. It was coming from a little restaurant to my left. Through the glass double doors, I could see four people conversing with each other; arguing, and laughing some more.

I walked up to the doors, touching my fingertips against the glass. I recognized these people. Outlined against the jade-colored walls, Satoshi was there, and so was Daisuke Niwa. They were with two girls that I'd seen before, but I didn't think I ever knew their names. One of them was... Risa, if my memory served me well. The other still escaped me.

Upon seeing the Niwa boy, I began to wonder what had happened to my violet-eyed enemy. Had he died with the Black Wings, or was he still here somewhere? Something in my subconscious told me that waking up last made sense.

I saw Satoshi's eyes shift toward the doors, so I fled. I wasn't sure how ready I was to make my presence known to him, yet.

I didn't get far.

"KRAD!"

I stopped walking and turned back to see my latest tamer standing about fifteen feet in front of me. His wintery blue hair was disheveled from rushing out of the restaurant so immediately. And I didn't know why I had been walking, rather than flying – I hadn't hidden my wings at all.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded. "I thought you were sealed!"

"I believe I was..." I said, looking over him again to try to figure out what had changed about him. There was something, but I couldn't quite place it. "...for a while."

"For two years," Satoshi informed me. "How did you get out!?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. If you are so concerned, Satoshi, you figure it out." Turning on my heel, I told him, "I'll be going, now."

Satoshi ran up behind me and grabbed my arm to stop me again. "That's not like you, Krad." His voice was completely serious. I couldn't recall a time when it ever wasn't. "I don't know how you got out of the Black Wings again, but you wouldn't have found me without some purpose. What do you want?"

What did I _want_?

... What _did_ I want? "Where's Dark?" I wondered.

Satoshi's oceanic eyes narrowed. "What do you want with Dark?" he asked, suspiciously.

"So he is here," I muttered.

I thought I saw shock in Satoshi's eyes for a moment. "You mean you didn't know?"

I shook my head. "Should I have?"

He didn't have an answer for me, then. His mouth opened as if he were going to say something, but either he thought against it or forgot.

The restaurant's double-doors peeked open and one of the girls stepped out onto the sidewalk. "Satoshi? What are..." her voice trailed off as she looked up at me.

"It's nothing, Risa," Satoshi said. "Why don't you go back inside –?"

"I remember you," Risa interrupted, contemplatively taking a step toward me. "You saved me, once..."

I stepped back slightly when she took another pace closer. "It wasn't me," I denied.

"It was me, Risa," Satoshi corrected her. "I've told you before; I was in Krad's form..." He put his hand on her shoulder, drawing her back to him.

"Hmm..."

"Let's get back to Daisuke and Riku," he suggested. "Krad was just leaving, anyway."

Risa puzzled over my name for a while, absently following Satoshi back inside again.

I was left alone once more.

My mind strayed again to Dark – it often had, but now rather than wanting him gone... I think I wanted him back. Life was just so boring without him, I decided.

My predicament reminded me of the seasons. When it's too hot we dream of cool, relieving snow, but when the snow falls, all we want is the heat to melt it away. There was just no winning in any of it.

And I couldn't understand why I had just mentally linked Dark to heat.

In comparison, solitude was the snow, and I was buried in it.


	6. Chapter 5

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...5th Part: Dark...

_I was in a really ugly house that smelled distinctly of old furniture which had absorbed a whole lot of disgusting cigarette smoke, looking for something. What I was looking for, though, had slipped my mind._

_I heard breathing in the next room – slow, faint breathing – and another scent caught my attention. It was blood. Oddly curious, I peered around the doorframe to see what had happened to the poor people who had lost so much blood that I was able to smell it so well. It was the scent of a nasty death._

_What I saw in that room confirmed my suspicions. Two people were lying on the floor of that kitchen; a scruffy-looking man and a woman with wild blond hair. There was a lot of congealing blood pooled on the floor. I felt sick looking at it._

_And amid all this mess was someone I recognized instantly._

"_Dark, I killed them..." A disturbing grin crossed his face, and I couldn't tell whether he was laughing or crying, judging by the sounds that came from him. He shoved at the mass of frizzy blond hair that belonged to the woman. "She's finally dead..."He shuddered, and long strands of disheveled golden hair slipped over his shoulders._

. . .

I woke feeling like I was going to be sick. Okay, for one: Krad was just in my dream. And two: that was some seriously grotesque murder scene. Nightmares were not something I particularly enjoyed. Amidst all the blood, Krad sat, looking as if he'd just won something. He'd looked relieved as he glanced up toward me. It was like he'd been freed of something.

But I had never known either of those corpses, so I couldn't understand their significance.

Shaking the bizarre scene out of my mind, I got up to take a shower, yawning and nearly tripping over my own feet to get there.

. . .

I had no entertainment anymore when Daisuke went off to school during the day. Most days, I would get stuck hanging around Daikii all day. I took to laying upside-down on one of the chairs, with my legs up over the top of it and my head hanging off the edge of the cushion so that everything I saw was flipped. I could only do that for so long, though, before blood began to rush to my head and give me a headache.

On other days I'd go out, looking for girls or just flying around. I had to be cautious when flying in the daylight, though. I didn't feel like dealing with the press quite yet – as much as I loved the fame, and as bored as I was, I couldn't quite picture myself back in the limelight.

Thinking like this made me feel my age. Maybe Daikii was rubbing off on me too much or something. I started to think of myself as temporarily retired.

I hoped there would be something to steal soon. Hell, I might just go off and steal simple, ordinary artworks like the Mona Lisa if I got too desperate for something to do.

I started dating a girl just out of some childish spite for Risa. This girl somewhat resembled what I pictured the Greek goddess, Aphrodite, to look like, with her long, wavy bronze hair which reached down to the small of her back, and almost teal-colored eyes.

That lasted about a week and a half.

I took a liking to sleeping on the couch in the living-room rather than the larger bed in the guest bedroom that now belonged to me. Well, on the nights that Akiko – that was her name – stayed late at the Niwa residence, I would pull her onto the couch with me. One time we fell asleep, but I ended up waking from another of those weird dreams, and she didn't take too kindly to her rude awakening, falling off of the couch when I unthinkingly tried to get up.

In conclusion, my life was becoming a really lame, mellow-dramatic disaster story.

. . .


	7. Chapter 6

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...6th Part: Dark...

I filed through Kosuke's books, looking for something else with which to keep myself occupied while he and Emiko talked about me behind my back.

They were worried about me. And they talked about other things concerning me, such as the lack of activity from the Hikari artworks.

Well, I'd always figured they were bound to run out eventually.

I glanced down at some of the books I was shuffling through and had to look twice at one of the titles, peeking out from under an array of other novels.

..._elfth N..._ is what I saw. And below that: ..._akesp_...

I pushed the other books and papers off of it, letting them all fall haphazardly onto the floor. I frowned down at the copy of Shakespeare's _Twelfth Night_, trying to place where I recognized it from. I wasn't one much for reading. I _could_ read, of course – I just never choose to do it in my infinite spare time.

I stared motionlessly down at the cover for any amount of time between ten minutes and an hour or more before finally deciding to grab it and take it back to the couch with me. I stretched out along the length of the couch, crossing my legs and settling back against the throw pillows before opening up the story to the first page.

There were several dumbfounded eyes staring at me; I could feel it. They turned away again before I started to feel too paranoid, though.

'_If music be the food of love,'_ I read, _'play on._ ..._'_

"_You just might have a point," I grumbled. My arm was wrapped around Krad's waist and_ –

I violently shook the imagery out of my head before the next part of the dream crept through my mind. A shiver wriggled down my spine and I turned back to the page to continue reading.

. . .

'_FIRST OFFICER: __This is the man; do thy office._

_SECOND OFFICER:__ Antonio, I arrest thee at the suit of Count Orsino._

_ANTONIO:__ You do mistake me, sir._

_FIRST OFFICER:__ No, sir, no jot; I know your favor well, though now you have no sea-cap on your head. Take him away: he knows I know him well._

_ANTONIO:__ I must obey. [To __VIOLA__] This comes in seeking you: But there's no remedy; I shall answer it. What will you do, now my necessity makes me to ask you for my purse? It grieves me much more for what I cannot do for you than what befalls myself. You stand amazed; but be of comfort.'_

I laughed before realizing it. I wasn't even sure what exactly what I was laughing for. I continued reading, tracing the words quickly with my eyes, looking for lines I somehow knew without ever having read them before. And I kept laughing at it.

"_...Would this fall under freedom of speech?"_

I paused, turning back a page to scan it for the part I'd just thought of. It wasn't there. Pushing my momentary confusion to the back of my mind, I started to read yet again.

'_ANTONIO: __But O how vile an idol proves this god! Thou hast, Sebastian, done good feature shame. Virtue is beauty, but the beauteous evil are empty trunks o'erflourished by the devil._

_FIRST OFFICER:__ The man grows mad: away with him! Come, come, sir.'_

"Lead me on!" I read aloud, nearly laughing and still not able to figure out why.

This earned me some strange looks...

I felt like running, suddenly, so I got up and smiled at everybody, backing slowly out of the house. "I'm gonna...uh... yeah..." I said stupidly, pushing my way out the door and stumbling into a sprint as soon as the door clicked shut behind me.

Adrenaline was coursing through me. I felt like I was running from Satoshi's amateur police force again.

"_You and your crazy artist..."_ I thought, smirking madly.


	8. Chapter 7

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...7th Part: Krad...

I didn't know how many times I'd managed to walk around the entire city of Azumano. I'd lost count. But one day as I treaded down the past the familiar again, the most unlikely person ran into me.

I didn't know he was there until he crashed into me at full force, knocking me to the ground. I hit my head on the sidewalk. "Hey!" I growled, golden light balling up in my fist instinctively. "Watch where – _Dark_!?"

The thief was on top of me, pinning me to the ground. His body felt hot in comparison to mine; probably from his running. My heart was knocking against my ribs and I could hear the pulsing in my ears. But it wasn't long before he normalized the bizarre moment.

His expression darkened instantly. "Krad! What are you still doing here?" He scrambled away from me to examine the new scrapes on his leg and the nice tear in his clothes that accompanied it.

I glared right back at him, rubbing the back of my skull. "I have a right to be here," I retorted. "What about you? Aren't you going to get back to your criminal excursions?"

Dark rolled his eyes. "You know there hasn't been any artwork activity since the Black Wings died. I have _nothing_ to _do_!" he complained. "Today: I read _Shakespeare_!" He threw his hands up in theatric despair.

Shakespeare... "You did _what_?"

"Exactly!" he exclaimed. "I found a copy of _Twelfth Night_ is Kosuke's stuff, and I – Why the _heck_ am I telling _you_ this!?"

Dark stood up, brushing off his shirt and scowling again at the tear in his pant-leg.

I stood, as well. I hated having him tower over me – I'd always hated it when we were fighting, too. If he ever got too high in the air above me, I'd have to follow to close off the difference. "How should I know? You're the one who literally _ran_ into me," I added. "I had absolutely nothing to do with anything, and know not the reasons for anything that you do, Mousy."

"Don't call me that," he said, sounding disgusted.

"Why not?" I wondered. Not that it mattered what he thought. I'd call him what I wanted, whether he liked it or not – and if not, all the better.

Dark shrugged, then shivered. "It's weird. I don't know exactly. It's like... What are you _doing_?"

While Dark was talking, I had pulled my hair over my shoulder and realized that the cross which usually dangled from the ends of it was gone. So I began looking around for it. "I'm... uhm..." Suddenly, I felt embarrassed for mentioning it: "I lost my cross again."

Dark was silent for a long moment. "...Again?" he muttered, but he changed his mind and scorned, "Why are you so concerned about some random jewelry?"

"You gave it to me," I said defensively. I found it and snatched it up from the ground.

When I turned back to Dark, he was looking sincerely confused. "I... did...?" I could almost see his mind working as he tried to remember something that I wasn't even sure I remembered. I hadn't really know what I was saying when I spoke. It just kind of... came out.

"Well..." I rethought what I had said, examining the white-gold pendant in my hand. "...I don't know! _Didn't_ you?"

"_I_ don't remember!" Dark was scowling even worse, now. "Great!" he said. "I can remember things that never happened, but I can't remember giving _that_ to you!? ...Unless you're lying," he considered. "That wouldn't be a first."

"I have _never_ lied to you!" I argued.

"You have, too!" he insisted.

I shoved to his chest. It seemed a surprisingly mellow gesture – there was certainly a great difference between that and trying to blast him with magic... "Name _one _time!" I challenged.

Dark was silent as he scowled at me.

"I knew you couldn't do it," I taunted, crossing my arms over my chest satisfactorily.

"I'll think of something eventually!" he declared. Then he turned and stalked away from me sulkily.


	9. Chapter 8

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...8th Part: Dark...

My heart was still pounding when I was far away from him. I wasn't quite sure if the acceleration was from being frustrated or from even farther back when I'd fallen on top of him. As horribly unlikely as the latter of the two was, it seemed to be the one that made the most sense. And at the same time, it _didn't_ make sense because I had noidea why it _did_.

I think those dreams were affecting my brain. My supposed arch enemy, Krad, who was usually trying to hunt me down and kill me, was suddenly some kind of companion to me in those dreams, and it seemed to be rubbing off on reality.

And now I had to think of a lie.

...but nothing was coming to me.

Had Krad really never lied to me at all? Everyone lies to someone _some_time in their life – and ours were extraordinarily long. He would have _had_ to. I thought on this the whole time meandering back home, and through the house to my bedroom, where I flopped down on the bed, on my back, and thought about it some more.

"_Those of us who don't have our own forms... nothing we hope for... nothing we wish for... will ever be granted to us!"_

I remembered him saying that, when Daisuke was still trapped within the land of the Second Hand of Time. But was it a lie? Or an opinion? Or a personal issue? And besides, I had my own form then – or could have, if I would have stooped down to his level and let Daisuke disappear with the dying artwork – so it didn't exactly apply to me. It certainly didn't apply to either of us, now...

Reluctantly, I decided that the only possibility that had come across my mind so far... didn't count.

. . .

I woke from another dream. It wasn't one of the stranger ones I'd had, but it left me with an interesting urge –

I wanted a motorcycle.

I didn't really _need_ a motorcycle, what with having wings and all, but... wouldn't it be cool to have one anyway? I could pick up some girl – maybe I'd try to win Akiko back – and have her ride with me. It shouldn't be too hard. She could sit behind me with her arms wrapped around my waist, and we could speed off together to wherever the impulse might take us.

_He climbed on behind me, hesitantly circling my waist with his arms._

Like that, only... not...


	10. Chapter 9

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...9th Part: Krad...

I tossed and fidgeted amongst the covers of the bed I slept in. I was staying in a hotel, for I had no wish to stay with Satoshi, and he would have wanted me there even less. I wasn't getting any sleep. I kept thinking about Dark.

Every time I started to drift into unconsciousness, I would dream. The dreaming would mingle with reality, and I'd wake back up quickly, thinking that Dark would be sleeping in the other bed.

I sat up, leaning against the headboard. My hands touched my chest lightly. I could still somehow feel Dark's body against mine, but of course he wasn't there. Memories of my dreams made me anticipate the feel of his lips.

"Stop it!" I shouted, wrapping my arms over my head and curling in on myself. I wiped the back of my hand across my mouth. Why was this happening? Why was I dreaming about Dark – thinking of him in this way?

He was my _enemy_!

_...was_?

When people have been together for so long...

What...?

I lay back down again, hugging my knees to my chest and pulling the blankets up over my head before trying to force myself to fall asleep.

. . .

I woke up around dawn, on the floor, with my legs propped up over the edge of the bed. My wings and arms were splayed out at either side of me – I had no idea when my wings had appeared – and I could feel my skin was greasy from sweating, although it was getting very close to winter.

I must have been fighting in my dream this time, I thought. But I couldn't remember. I'd had too many dreams coursing through my head that night to distinguish one from another.

Two things were a constant, though: travelling and Dark. Why we kept moving through wherever location we were, I didn't know. And why I was migrating wherever with the thief, I had even less idea.

Getting up from my awkward position, I decided to take a shower.

Pulling my wings in, I undressed, pulled my hair out of its usual ponytail, and stepped under the running water. The heat of it felt good compared to the cold of the rest of the room.

. . .

There was a loud knocking somewhere, but I assumed it was someone looking for the neighboring people, not me. I ignored it, but it was persistent. I covered my ears and stuck my face under the rushing water to block out as much of the sound as I could.

Eventually, the noise stopped. Whoever it was clamored away down the hall.

I pushed my drenched hair out of my face before washing it as I puzzled over the stubborn visitor. Was there even anyone in the rooms next to me? I thought I recalled the hotel being pretty empty. There would be a rush in a couple weeks, I'd heard, but none so far.

I lost my footing in the slippery shower when the knocking started up again, knocking my head against the wall and probably bruising my pelvis.

"Krad, let me in!" Maybe the fall cased my delirium, or that was actually Dark's voice I heard. He pounded on my door again, but I was still in pain and didn't want to move.

"Go away!" I groaned, examining my injury with squinted eyes. I saw that the water still pouring over me was going down the drain in an orange-tinted pigment. That wasn't a good sign. That meant my head was bleeding.

"I have a keycard!" he threatened.

I shut the water off and climbed out of the shower, groping along the wall for a towel because my clothes were still in the main room.

The door clicked open, and I knew that Dark would be standing on the other side of the bathroom door by now. "Krad?" he called. "I know I heard you in here!"

I managed to stand up, but felt dizzy and leaned against the door for a minute in an attempt to stabilize myself. Then I grabbed the handle and opened the door. "I was taking a shower!" I snapped. "Do you have a problem with that!?"

I had to stop myself from laughing when Dark flinched and moved back against the wall, away from me. The look on his face was priceless. And was his face really that red?

I looked down at my unclothed body, wrapped in a towel at my waist and still dripping wet. The throbbing in my skull distracted me from my musings and I pressed my hand lightly to the back of my head. When I looked at the result, my fingers were covered in blood.

"What the hell did you do to yourself!?" Dark practically shouted at me. I covered my ear reflexively with my clean hand. The sharp sound didn't help my condition. I guess I'd fallen harder than I had thought.

Suddenly, I couldn't keep my vision straight. I stared down at the blood for a moment – just a splotch of scarlet on a moving shape that was supposedly my still hand – then tried to look back up at Dark. I opened my mouth to explain, but my voice wouldn't work.

Then everything went black and gravity took its toll.


	11. Chapter 10

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...10th Part: Dark...

Krad collapsed suddenly, and instinctively I reached my arms out to catch him. I didn't know how that would be an instinct around him, but there he was, in my grasp. There was blood matting his hair at the back of his head. How that had gotten there, I was clueless, but he seemed to have lost enough blood to have passed out.

I hoped we would still heal quickly with our own forms. I hadn't had the need to test that out, yet.

He looked different with his hair down...

Shaking that thought out of my head, I looked around for an answer of what to do with him. I couldn't take him to a public hospital, could I? How would I explain it if he _did_ heal more than twice as fast as ordinary people?

"Damnit," I growled under my breath.

Oh, yeah – and why was I here?

No clue.

But I had gotten a motorcycle, and I had ridden it here.

And now I had to figure out a way to fix Krad's head. I felt doomed at that thought.

Carrying him over to one of the beds in the room, I sat down, positioning him in my lap in such a way that I could look at the damage without laying him on his face, which would probably bring about the possibility of suffocating him, which I didn't really want to do. I didn't want to kill him – it was generally the other way around, and he hadn't been bothering me.

I picked his hair away from the wound with one hand, holding him upright with my other arm. The gash beneath the stained golden strands wasn't very deep. He must have begun to heal already, because a cut like what he had wouldn't have been enough to make him pass out. I sighed with some measure of relief and leaned back against the headboard.

. . .

I waited as patiently as I could for Krad to wake up again, trying to ignore his lack of clothes. I tried to hold him with my sleeved arms and not my hands, avoiding any skin contact that might make the awkward heat in my face worse. I didn't really understand why his being almost nude was embarrassing for me. If things actually still made sense, he should be the embarrassed one, I should be laughing, and he should have that look of 'You are so dead, Mousy' in his eyes.

But that wasn't how it worked anymore, obviously.

Krad's face tightened in pain and he groaned. I looked at the back of his head again and discovered that the injury was almost completely healed. He pushed back against me suddenly, and his leg bent up, bringing his knee up closer to his body. I shoved his leg back down with my foot and crossed my leg over the top of his, holding it down. He was having some sort of fit in his unconsciousness that I couldn't figure out. He was probably dreaming.

"Dark!" Krad whined.

I think my eye twitched.

He was still fidgeting; tossing around – as much as he was able, still held tightly in my arms. "Krad, stop it," I hissed. "And don't talk to me unless you're awake," I added. Somehow, I had ended up wedging my fingers between his, and I muttered the last of what I said close to his face.

Noticing this, I quickly pulled my hand into my sleeve and turned his head the other way. I shook my head, taking a long, loud breath.

"Wake up already," I complained.


	12. Chapter 11

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...11th Part: Krad...

When I regained consciousness, I could hardly move, and when I opened my eyes, I realized why that was. Dark was holding me. His arms were locked around my waist and my shoulders, and his legs pinned down mine. I turned to look at him out of the corner of my eye. He was staring at the ceiling, and he was still blushing.

I'd never seen Dark blush, before today. It was really odd.

Some part of me – the logical part – wanted to get away from him as quickly as I could. An even smaller part of me told me that he should be running for his life. But the dominant part of me – the part that still lingered from dreaming – was going to stay there with my eyes closed, waiting until Dark figured out for himself that I was awake.

It took longer than I thought it would. I lay against him, perfectly still, studying the bizarre and unlikely situation we were in. I memorized the feeling of his arms around me; being pressed against his chest – it wasn't a hard task.

Only when the part of me that was completely repulsed by this started taking over and I almost gagged as I thought about it some more, did Dark notice I was no longer unconscious.

He let go of me instantly, stopping short of shoving me away. "How long were you awake!?" he demanded.

"Not long," I lied, getting away from him and grabbing my clothes.

"Wh – Agh!" he cut himself off, turning away to face the opposite direction. "Geez! Don't you have _any_ modesty!?" he freaked out, cutting off his peripheral vision by holding his hands up to the sides of his face.

"It's just my back, Dark," I said, pulling on my clothes.

"Well, I didn't need to _see_ your _'back'_!"

I probably could have laughed, but I didn't. Instead, I pointed out: "_You_ were the one holding onto me so tightly. What were you trying to do – protect me or _suffocate_ me?" I turned back to him once I'd gotten my arms through the sleeves of my shirt and began to button it up. "And why did you _insist_ upon getting into my room – to the _extent_ of getting an extra _card key_?"

Dark didn't have an answer for me. I hadn't really been expecting one. That was just how the dream impulses functioned: without reason.

"Damnit," I muttered, fussing over my shirt some more.

Taking his hands away from his face, he turned toward me again. "What?"

"I missed a couple," I explained, beginning to undo the buttons I'd just managed to fasten lopsidedly.

He grabbed my wrists and pulled my hands away from my shirt, pinning them to my sides. "Just leave it – It's fine."

"What's with you?" I wondered. I looked down at my shirt again, shoving my hands into my pockets while contemplating if I should continue fixing my crooked-and-already-half-undone shirt, regardless of Dark's apparent discomfort.

"What's with _me_?" he echoed, disbelievingly. "What's with _you_? You just –"

"It**is** _my_ room, Dark," I interrupted him. "I want to know why you –"

"I don't know, okay!?" he shouted.

Silence passed between us.

I rather enjoyed our argument, strangely enough. Not because Dark and I were against each other again, for a while, but because of the awkward subject we were arguing about. It was almost like we were... together...? Like we knew each other_ outside_ of those old battles...

"What's _that_ face for?" Dark's voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

"What face?"

"You were grinning... or something..." He looked confused. "...but you looked seriously creepy – not like that's unusual...."

"I know you don't mean that," I found myself saying. "Not completely. You're the liar, Dark."

Dark just glared at me. "When have I lied to you?" he challenged, just like I had challenged him the other day.

"When we were travelling," I recalled, "there was a point when you said that you were leaving me, but you never actually did."

"_What_ are you _talking_ about!?" He took too long to respond. He knew perfectly what I was talking about.

The dreams.

"There's another lie, Dark," I noted, holding up two fingers, waiting for him to deny it again so I would be able to put up a third. "You still haven't thought of a time when _I've_ lied, have you?"

"Those dreams don't count for anything!" he griped. "They're completely false!"

"You can't know that!" I argued. "Think about it! We've been gone for _two years_!"

"I don't need to hear this from you." Dark pushed past me toward the door.

I grabbed his arm. "You can't just walk away from this. There's significance to those dreams; I know it!"

"You don't know anything!" He wrenched his arm out of my hand, throwing a look at my half-bare chest before walking out of my room and slamming the door behind him.

I flinched.

When I heard the sound of a motorcycle engine starting up, I ran to the window, throwing the blinds and the window, itself, open. "That is so low of you, Mousy!" I yelled after him. "You can't just run from this!"

Letting out a snarl of frustration, I slumped against the wall, sliding down to sit on the floor with my legs stretched out in front of me; poutily swirling a globe of gold magic around in my hands. I wanted to throw it at something – pitch it as hard as I could and just _kill _something – but I didn't want to have to pay for the damages. It was bad enough having to pay to _sleep_ in the damn room...


	13. Chapter 12

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...12th Part: Dark...

The image of Krad was branded into my eyelids. Practically every time I blinked, I would see his naked figure, drenched, and with his hair down and plastered to the contours of his body.

I shuddered, listening intently to the roar of my motorcycle to clear my head of this.

I couldn't determine whether I was nauseated or attracted. That was what bothered me the most.

. . .

"Dark! Where have you been all day?" Emiko asked pleasantly enough when I walked through the front door of the Niwa place.

"Around," I said simply.

"Did anything exciting happen?" she wondered conversationally.

"Not really." I flopped down on the couch, but refused to close my eyes.

"How's your new motorcycle working out for you?"

I wished she would stop asking me questions. "Great, Emiko." I switched on the radio for some noise, hoping to drown her out.

She came over to the couch and looked down at me, placing her hands on her hips. "Dark, what's wrong?"

Emiko was a little too perceptive for my tastes. "Nothing's wrong."

"Dark," she reasoned, stubbornly. "You've been reduced to two-word responses that tell me absolutely nothing, except that you are avoiding something. What went wrong? Is it that girl, Akiko, again?"

"Nothing's wrong!" I insisted, getting up. "Everything is perfectly fine! Geez..." I walked off to my room and closed the door behind me, turning the radio on in there, too, just as Emiko decided to turn it off in the living-room.

If I was lucky, maybe she wouldn't pester me anymore. She still didn't know about Krad, and I didn't want to tell her that he was here. I _really_ didn't want to tell her the _full_ story.

. . .

I decided it was best to avoid Krad for a while. Each time I noticed that I was wandering toward the hotel he was staying at, I forced myself to turn back the other way and find a new – and probably longer – route to wherever I was going.

That had been working for all of a couple weeks.

It was the Saturday before Christmas, which would be on a Friday this year. I was listening to an MP3 player with the volume at almost full blast, which apparently distracted me enough to let my feet lead me right to the hotel.

It seemed a lot busier now. A group of people was filing into the building as I came closer, and I assumed that by Tuesday the place would be packed. There were a lot of people coming to visit family and friends for the holidays.

I wonder how well Krad would handle his new company...

"I told you to get out yesterday!" A harsh voice declared. "Go on – out! Now!"

The arriving group was looking very confused, breaking apart to let someone stumble through. Krad tripped out of the muddle of humans and turned back at the manager of the hotel, giving the woman his deadliest glare.

"You can't stay here if you're not going to pay for it! That's just the way it works!"

"Why you –" Krad growled. I saw magic building up in his fist and ran at him before he could throw it at someone, grasping his wrist firmly.

"Let it go," I warned.

Krad ripped his arm from my grasp, earning himself scratches that I hadn't intended to inflict upon him. He stormed away from me, snarling something under his breath.

"Krad!" I shouted after him. I rolled my eyes at him when he didn't show any signs of hearing me.

I was about to walk off the other way when the manager approached me. She had just finished apologizing to the other arriving guests. "Is that a friend of yours?" she asked me.

"Not exactly," I replied, considering.

"Would it be troublesome to ask his payment from you?"

"Yeah, it would," I said, suddenly defensive. But I rethought my response and asked, "How much does he owe you?"

. . .

Well, with his bill paid off, I decided I might as well go looking for him. I had a hard time finding him, but eventually I ended up back at the sight of the Black Wings death. Krad was leaning against a wall on the opposite side of the room from the enormous painting, with his legs pulled up close to his chest and his arms crossed over his knees. His face was hidden in his arms.

I stood in the doorway for a while, just watching him.

"What do you want, Mousy?"

I walked over to him and sat down next to him, pulling one of the ear-buds out of my ear and turning the volume down on my music. "What's wrong, Krad?" I asked.

"Since when do _you_ care?" he wondered. "Just leave me alone, Dark."

"Fine, then." I leaned my head back against the wall and stuck the other ear-bud back in my ear to continue listening to the full sound of the music. "Be that way."

I waited through about five songs before Krad raised his head to look at me. It looked like his anger fit was about over, which was good. I watched as he stretched his legs out in front of him and folded his hands awkwardly in his lap.

Another two songs finished, and I looked away again. I was getting bored, and was contemplating leaving soon if Krad continued to ignore me.

Sound left one of my ears and I shifted my eyes to see Krad hold the tiny speaker up to his ear, moving a bit closer to me. "What is this?" he wondered.

I shrugged, turning toward him again. My shoulder bumped his when I moved. "A variety of things. Rock music, mostly."

Krad just sat still and listened for a while. "What artist is this one?" he wondered.

"Saliva – they're an American band."

"Oh."

I knocked the back of my hand against his arm. "So, are you going to talk or what?"

"You don't really want to hear me speak," he said demurely. "You said so yourself."

"So it's about those stupid dreams, again?" I concluded.

"What _isn't_ about those dreams?" Krad pointed out fiercely. "They're all I can think about – even when I try not to!"

"Hey, calm down." I put my hand on his shoulder and shook him a little.

"I can't help but feel that we're missing something, though..." he went on. "I feel like I have some unfinished business with you..." His eyes were intense as he studied my face. "...but I can't figure out what."


	14. Chapter 13

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...13th Part: Dark...

The songs went on, one by one, and awkward silence of words reigned between me and Krad, because we couldn't find anything to say unless we were arguing about dreams; whether they were relevant or not.

Krad's head ended up on my shoulder as time passed. He wasn't asleep, but his eyes were bleary and absent-looking. It wouldn't be long before he did fall asleep.

"Hey, Krad?"

"Hmm..?" he mumbled.

"Why did you start refusing to pay for that hotel room?" I wondered. "You owe me big time, you know that?"

Krad sighed and looked up toward me a little, mostly just shifting his hazy golden eyes. "I didn't have any money left," he said. "I'm surprised that I actually lasted that long. All that I had," he explained, "I found in my pockets."

I raised a quizzical eyebrow at him. "You just _found_ all that money in your _pockets_?"

"That's what I've told you." Krad turned his gaze away from me again, looking down at the floor. "I only have one idea where it might have come from."

I knew what he was going to tell me. It was obvious that he was thinking of those dreams, again. The ones where we were allies in some way, journeying across nowhere in particular to find something we couldn't identify as anything specific. To me, not only was everything about those dreams ridiculous, it seemed horribly unfinished; lacking in detail.

Adjusting my legs so that I could stand up, I decided that it was time I leave. I didn't want to deal with anymore nonsense than I had to.

"Wait!" Krad said, grabbing my arm and pressing his face against my shoulder. "Don't leave just yet. I don't want you to leave until I figure out what I'm missing."

"Maybe you're missing a _life_," I suggested tartly. "Let go of me already. How can I trust you not to murder me in my sleep or something? Seriously..." I tried to stand up again, but Krad stretched his arm out over my chest, locking me to the wall.

"Don't. Go," he insisted.

So, with not many other options, I stayed.

. . .

"_Ah! Jeez, when did you get there!?" I found myself looking around for a clock._

_Krad shrugged his bare shoulders. He was sitting on the edge of my bed... in a towel. I rolled my eyes at him and got up to look for some clothes. Hopefully, we were the same size._

. . .

"You're_ the one who gave it to me!"_

. . .

_I snatched him back to me, turning him around and pressing my lips against his. "You _might_ just have a point," I relented, reluctantly._

. . .

_Krad glared at me._

"_What?" I wondered. "I didn't do anything _wrong_, did I?" Krad didn't answer and I could see a slight blush dusting his cheeks. I felt a smirk tugging at my lips. "I knew it," I boasted, poking at his chest triumphantly. "You _like_ it when I kiss you."_

. . .

"_Are you ready for the end of the world?"_

. . .

I woke up with a start, feeling very disturbed and disoriented. Remembering to breathe again, I looked down at my shoulder. What I saw was not surprising. Krad was still leaning against me, but now he was asleep. My MP3 player had long since turned itself off, so I wrapped the ear-buds around it and shoved it in my pocket.

Now, to find a way to get up without waking the sleeping man beside me.

After what I'd just seen, I did not really want his company.

I moved away from him slowly, holding his head up with my arm. I lowered him to the ground just as carefully, if not more so, and once standing, I stayed just to gaze puzzlingly at him for a while.

Finally, I walked away, leaving the almost angelic-looking figure there on the floor. There was a small knot in my chest that wanted me to go back to him, but I'd left him before. I didn't see why it would make much of a difference now.

Smothering the feeling, I walked on. I needed to go home.


	15. Chapter 14

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...14th Part: Krad...

I realized it as I began to wake up, little by little: I was cold. There was no warmth of any kind anywhere around me. And my neck and shoulder ached from lying on the floor. Groaning a little, I stretched my arm out, feeling around for someone I expected to still be there... but wasn't. Dark was gone. Again.

I opened my eyes, clenching my hand into a fist and pounding it down on the empty ground in frustration.

"You were supposed to stay," I muttered, heaving myself up to stretch.

But at least now I had some idea as to what I had somehow forgotten before. It wasn't all there, but the puzzle was slowly mending itself. It was an awkward picture, but I was beginning to accept it – even _desire _it.

All I had to do was make Dark believe it.

That would be some task...

. . .

It was beginning to snow – the first snow of the season – and I didn't have a very warm jacket, but I didn't care. I was already cold anyway, and I was determined to make Dark listen to me.

I stood with the door open, looking outside at the little white specks that fell from the sky, drifting lazily to the ground to join small mounds of others. Staring at them one by one; following their path down to Earth, I felt lost. I spread my wings absently and stepped out into the weather. I let the snowflakes fall on me, trying not to notice how icy their tiny touches were as I studied the ones on my hands.

They were like little worlds all on their own, patient and mortal, with no absurd expectations, and no prejudices. Completely pure, free, and worriless were these little patterned things. And for once I could stand and gaze awestricken at them, wholly myself and on my own.

I wandered.

I didn't know where I was going anymore. I was too distracted. But what I did determine for myself was that winter would be my favorite season. No matter how cold I got or how numb, I couldn't bring myself to find shelter from it because I found that what I was seeing was profoundly beautiful in its own unique way.

A woman who was walking by noticed me. She had – judging by her manner of speech – been talking to her boyfriend on a cell phone, which was half concealed beneath her wavy reddish-brown hair. "I'm going to have to call you back." Hanging up the phone, she turned to me, just after I managed to hide my wings again. The girl looked me over for a moment before asking, "Aren't you cold?"

I nearly laughed. "I don't really think that's of your concern."

"Well..." She stuck her phone into the purse hanging from her shoulder. "...I don't want you to get frostbitten."

Curious girl. "I'll be fine," I told her. Only then had I realized that I'd taken off my jacket at some point.

"Because I've gotten frostbite before," she continued. "It's not fun – at all – really – you should at least put your jacket on, you know." The girl reached down and picked up my jacket from where it was lying on the snow and held it out to me. "Here."

Looking skeptically at the bundle of fabrics, I took it from her. "Who are you?" I wondered.

"Oh!" She smiled courteously. "My name's Akiko Samura. And yours?"

"Krad," I stated simply.

Akiko's eyes widened suddenly, pulling away her smile as she checked her watch. "I'm sorry. I've got to run – I'm late for my date. Nice meeting you, Krad!" she called over her shoulder, waving as she left.

"Good-bye..." I murmured uncertainly.


	16. Chapter 15

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...Fifteenth Part: Dark...

My date with Akiko went well. We went to see a movie. We missed a few parts here and there – which wasn't necessarily a bad thing – and Satoshi and Risa happened to be in the same theater as us, but the show itself was pretty good anyway.

I drove Akiko to her place because she had other things she needed to do – things that probably included some Christmas shopping – and returned home fairly content.

But once I got back, I had this bizarre feeling of being watched.

. . .

I retreated to my bedroom at the end of the day, unusually tired even though the last part of my day had been rather uneventful.

Falling onto my bed and staring at the ceiling for a while, I began to drift to sleep.

And then something hit my window.

When I looked to see what it was, snow was sliding off of the glass, and another glob of it followed the first, smashing against the window again. About five snowballs and a half hour later, I finally decided to investigate.

I opened the abused window and was promptly smacked in the face by a bunch of cold, wet snow.

"So, this _is_ the right one. I was beginning to have my doubts."

Hastily brushing the snow off of my face, I glared down at Krad. "What do you want _now_!? And why the hell did you just throw snow in my face!?"

Krad shrugged. "Your attention. Do I have it?" He grinned faintly. "And the snow was just for fun."

"Oh, you are so gonna get it, now!" I opened the window farther and climbed out of it, grabbing the frame and pulling it shut as I jumped down to the ground. Immediately, I scooped up some snow...

"Dark, what are you –?"

...and hit _him_ in the face.

It was a juvenile reaction, but it sure made me feel better. Smirking, I picked up another clump of snow, carefully shaping it as I waited for Krad to attempt to warm his face back up.

"So, how long have you been out here?" I wondered, looking around absently at the snow, which was still drifting down from the sky.

"Nearly all day," he answered, rubbing his cheeks with slender hands that looked just as frozen as the rest of him.

"You could get some serious frostbite, pulling something like that," I commented.

Krad raked some of the snow out of his bangs. "So I've heard."

Suddenly, he stooped down to pick up some snow and hurled it at me without even so much as a change of expression. He was still pulling snow out of his hair.

I ducked away from the attack and the snowball hit the wall instead. I threw mine at him. It brushed his arm when he tried to move out of its way.

"I'm curious, Krad: Did you stalk me just to throw snow at me, or is there something else you wanted?" I wondered. "I'm done talking about those ridiculous dreams. I told you that already."

"Fine. Have it your way, then." His grin got just a bit wider, but his eyes made the look awkward, because the look in them made him seem like he had no idea at all what he was doing. "I won't talk..." Krad walked up to me and grasped my collar in his cold, rigid fingers. I only stayed where I was because I was curious – and confused.

I couldn't anticipate his next move.

Krad's lips were icy from being outside in this kind of weather for so long, and a different kind of chill ran down my spine. I backed away quickly, leaning against the wall of the Niwa house, and Krad shoved his hands into his pockets, staring off to one side at nothing in particular.

"What was _that_ for!?" I demanded, wiping the back of my hand across my mouth. "You just _kissed_ me!"

He stayed silent.

"Krad! That –" I shook my head speechlessly. I didn't know what exactly to say. I didn't really know what I felt, either. He had a point about those dreams. An odd sense of déjà vu had hit me when we'd kissed. "I want an explanation!"

"I've been giving you one," Krad said after a while. He turned back to me. "Do you remember that, Dark?"

I nodded. "But I told you –"

"Denial," he interrupted me. "That's all it is! Don't you miss it _at all_? We had a _life_ there, Mousy!"

Glaring again, I argued, "I have a life _here_, too, Krad – I always _had_!"

Krad clapped his hands over my shoulder and shook me hard once. "I didn't!" he growled, and shoved me back against the wall again before turning his back to me. "We were sealed within the Black Wings," he said, "and somehow, the artwork resisted destruction. It built a world around us – which was by no means perfect, but..."

"Krad –"

"I wish now that it hadn't involved you!" Krad snapped, glancing back over his shoulder at me. "I had wanted to tell you something, before we stepped through that mirror..."

His voice trailed off and I waited for him to tell me what it was, but he didn't. "What is it?" I pressed, curious.

"You don't deserve to hear it anymore," Krad told me. "And it doesn't matter if you don't want to believe the memories – and don't argue, Dark, because that's what they are. They're not _only_ dreams."

He started to walk away.

"Hold it!" I shouted, running up to him and catching his arm before he could go any farther. "You're not going anywhere until you tell me."

"I have nothing more to tell you if you won't really listen to me," Krad said, pulling his arm away from me. His voice sounded strained.

I held on tighter. "Come on – at least look at me." I turned his face with my free hand to see the tears that crept slowly down his face. It was amazing that they didn't freeze in place on his skin.

"I'm giving up on you," he informed me.

But now that he wanted out...

...I found myself wanting to believe him.


	17. Chapter 16

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...Sixteenth Part: Krad...

Dark wiped the tears away from my face which I hadn't intended to let escape in the first place. "Tell me what it was," he insisted quietly.

"No."

Looking into his deep violet eyes – I never remembered them being so entrancing before – I wanted to kiss him again. I wanted to tell him... but I couldn't.

I pulled myself roughly out of his grasp and turning away from him yet again, I made another attempt to walk away and leave the whole ordeal behind me. I would bury it and never look back on any of it again. I would even stay awake for the rest of my existence if I had to. Because it all meant nothing without Dark – who wanted nothing to do with me, it seemed.

"Krad!" he yelled after me. "Krad, get back here!"

I tried to ignore him.

"Where do you think you're going to go!?"

I paused only for a split second before shouting, "Anywhere! I don't care! There is _nowhere_ for me!" I wasn't generally given to such emotion, but I couldn't help it anymore. I was crying and it probably wasn't going to stop soon. I hated it.

Suddenly, I felt his arms wrap securely around me. "Then stay with me, Krad. I'll stop avoiding everything, alright?"

I choked on whatever I was going to say, so I took to silence again, and Dark continued to hold me.

"Snap out of it," Dark said in a way that could have made laugh if I wasn't feeling so depressed. "This isn't like you..."

. . .

Dark managed to sneak me into the house without anyone else noticing. "If anyone sees you," he warned me, "we are both going to be in some serious trouble, got it?"

I shrugged, sitting down on the edge of Dark's bed.

"I can't hide you forever, either," he said as he pulled off his shirt. He turned it right-side-out again and tossed it back into one of the dresser drawers. "You're going to have to figure something out, sooner or later."

"Until then..." I wondered quietly, forcing myself to look up at the ceiling as he changed out of his black jeans into pajama pants. "...where do I sleep?"

Dark looked around the room, puzzling over it.

"On the floor?" I suggested reluctantly. "If you have some extra blankets I'll probably be fine."

"It gets really cold on the floor," he said.

"Like you really care," I said skeptically.

"I cared enough to get you indoors," he pointed out.

I didn't have anything to say to that. I almost smiled.

Dark was finally beginning to accept things.

. . .

The thief went around the house in search of extra blankets. He came back with five, telling me that they were really warm, and that I should sleep on top of at least two or three of them. Dark was kind of entertaining when he was trying to be hospitable.

I set up my makeshift bed next to Dark's, where it couldn't be seen from the doorway, laying out three of the blankets on top of each other before settling down and pulling the last two over me. I used my arm for a pillow and was almost sleeping before Dark tossed me a real pillow.

"Good-night," he told me softly, and switched off the light.


	18. Chapter 17

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...Seventeenth Part: Dark...

When I woke up, I was laying with my arm hanging over the edge of the bed, and there were fingers curled around mine. I looked down at Krad to find that he was still sleeping. He had gotten closer to the bed and _his_ hand was the one I was holding.

Despite Krad's shivering, he looked calm as he slept; content. It was a puzzling sight, seeing him curled in on himself in such a childish way. His forehead rested against my knuckles.

I just watched him for a while, not knowing exactly what else to do.

Soon enough, he woke up. His eyes opened slowly and he looked up at me with hazy eyes. "Dark...?"

"No. You're just dreaming again," I lied, smirking.

"That's what I thought," Krad said, yawning and adjusting his hold on my hand a little. Obviously, he wasn't completely awake yet. He closed his eyes again.

I sighed. "Krad, wake up. I was kidding," I said, carefully pulling my hand away.

"Well _stop_ 'kidding'," Krad objected quietly, glancing up at me again with narrow eyes. He tugged the blankets tighter around him. "And don't you heat this place at all? I'm freezing."

"Yesterday's hypothermia finally getting to you?" I wondered teasingly.

He glared at me.

"_What_?"

"Nothing. I'm fine," he said, sitting up and turning away from me. "Can I use your shower?"

I shrugged. "Go ahead."

He left the room, and I drifted off to sleep again with my thoughts and the sound of running water.

. . .

When I woke up for the second time that morning, Krad was sitting on the edge of my bed, just staring at me.

"Oh, hey... I guess I fell asleep again," I said stupidly, sitting up and yawning.

"Yes. You did."

"Are you hungry? I could get you some breakfast," I offered. I got up and went into the bathroom to change and run some water over my hair in the sink – a temporary substitute for a shower.

Krad was still sitting where he had been when I came back. "I'm fine. I don't need anything."

"You sure? You don't look so great." Krad wasn't exactly acting normal. He looked really depressed about something.

Could he still be upset about last night?

"Thanks, Dark," he said demurely.

"Sorry – I didn't mean it like that. You're beautiful, really..." He gave me a strange look and my voice faltered for a second when I realized what I'd just said. "...You don't look like you're feeling well, is all..."

Krad's lips formed a small, sad smile. He didn't say anything.

I came and sat next to him on the bed, propping my foot up on the edge of the mattress and leaning my head against my knee, and I rested my hand on his shoulder. "Look," I said. "I really am sorry. I remember... It's just..."

"It's bizarre," Krad finished for me. His eyes were unfocused for a while, looking off at something that I wasn't seeing. Then he frowned, and turning back to me, he said, "You never saw me cry, Dark. Got it?"

I nearly laughed. "Make up your mind already," I joked. "First you want me to remember everything, and now you want me to forget?"

"Only certain details." He placed his hand on top of mine as if he was about to pull it away from his shoulder, but he didn't.

More silence followed. Companionable silence.

"Dark, if... if you could go back, would you?" Krad asked softly, his exotic golden eyes catching my gaze. He searched my eyes for an answer.

"I don't know," I told him.

I did remember – most of it, anyway – but all this time spent avoiding it had begun to get to me a little, and I wasn't too sure about reconstructing the strange relationship between the two of us.

Krad brushed my hand away, returning to his silence.

"Dark!!" Emiko's voice called from outside the door suddenly.

"Krad, get down!" I whispered harshly, almost pushing him off the bed. He ducked down so he wouldn't be visible from the door if she decided to open it.

"Dark, are you in there!?"

"Yeah! What's up?"

"An artwork has finally appeared!" she informed me.

"Really?" That was odd. There had been a huge stop in artwork activity since the Black Wings had died. So why this _one_, now?

"Yep! It's called the _Mirror of Dreams_. It's going to be at the museum tomorrow night, and that's when you're going to steal it!"

I looked down at Krad, whose eyes were wide with disbelief. We were both thinking the same thing: Could it really be _that_ mirror?

"If you want to go back," I told him. "You just might have a chance."


	19. This is Where I Try 2 Explain the Mirror

The Mirror of Dreams

No one knows why the Mirror of Dreams was created, but we do know this: how it was sealed. It was sealed _within_ another artwork, because the Mirror itself could not be sealed. It was thought that even if it was still active within that other artwork, it wouldn't be able to affect the outside world. And that had been exactly right.

The artwork chosen just happened to be the Black Wings.

What they weren't counting on, was the Black Wings' will to survive – the wills of Dark and Krad. A world was created, protecting them. But they were compelled to get out before the artwork completely died. They couldn't stay there forever. They found the Mirror, and were released once again – this time, not as a curse, but as their own selves.

The Mirror of Dreams was also somehow released.

All that the Niwas know, however, is that the Mirror is an artwork, it's not sealed, and its main function is to suck people into other worlds – specifically, the world of their dreams. As far as they know, it hasn't yet been proven, but there is still concern.

And one other detail would prevent our two angels from ever being able to go back.


	20. Chapter 18

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...Eighteenth Part: Dark...

Christmas Eve, and I had to go steal an artwork. Krad was coming with me.

"I have to go with you," he told me, gripping my shoulders with an intensity that I hadn't gotten from Krad in a while. "What if it is that same mirror?"

"And what if it's not?" I argued. "Just stay here, alright? I'll be bringing it back with me anyway."

"It has to be!" he insisted. "Don't you remember – there's just that feeling!"

"Do you _really_ want to go back that badly? Please, Krad, just _stay here_!"

Krad looked like he was about to cry again. He shoved me away. I stumbled, but caught my balance before I could fall over. "You wouldn't go back _with_ me... That's it, isn't it?"

I didn't have the words to answer.

"Dark, say _something_!" he shouted.

"Dark – who's shouting in there!?" Emiko's voice came through the door.

"Dark...?"

I couldn't even really look at him anymore. "It's nothing, Emiko!" I shouted back to her.

Krad stormed over to me and before I could contemplate what was happening, he punched me in the face. My head whipped to the side and blood spattered onto the carpet from my nose. "'_Nothing_'!?"

Emiko decided to open the door then. I cringed at the furious look on her face. "Dark! What is _Krad_ doing in my house!!?" she demanded. She tromped across the room with something close to murder in her eyes, and I blocked her before she could try anything. "How long has he been here!? Out of my way, Dark!"

"And what exactly do you think you could do to me, Niwa?" Krad challenged.

I looked back and saw that his sadistic grin shaped his mouth just like I remembered it from forever ago. He looked just like Emiko would remember him, except for one minor difference: tears streaked his face. He was either out to get some kind of revenge on me by killing Emiko, or it was suicide by the woman's wrath. I really couldn't tell which.

"Emiko, calm down!" I insisted, managing to pin her arms to her sides. "He's not hurting anything! Leave him alone!"

"Why don't you just let her go, Dark. She knows what she's doing," Krad said, bringing out the best of velvety voice.

I began leaning toward the death-by-Emiko possibility.

"Krad, hush," I pleaded. "She seriously _could_ kill you!"

"Maybe I've realized that already, Mousy."

Definitely suicide.

I was momentarily speechless. I shook my head at him disbelievingly. Was he really _that_ lost to those dreams?

"If you let her kill you, I'll never forgive you," I said.

"And why is that?" There was something in his voice that almost sounded like amusement, but... not quite. It was too bitter.

I glared at him for a while before turning back to Emiko, who had settled down somewhat. "Don't hurt him, Emiko. Please." I looked back at Krad. "He's going to help me steal the Mirror."


	21. Chapter 19

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

...Nineteenth Part: Krad...

Fine. If Emiko wants to kill me, then let her. How epic to die on Christmas Eve.

I began to doubt Dark completely. He was probably letting me stay with him out of pity. Sure, he might _remember_ the dreams, but he doesn't _care_ anymore. Not about me, or anything we might have had together.

Nothing.

Dark held the raging Niwa woman back, trying to protect me from her even though I had just given him a bloody nose. He didn't even seem to notice it. He just kept pleading her to stop; to calm down...

I wanted her to kill me. I didn't want Dark to have the honor of tearing me to pieces anymore. I just wanted it to stop. She could stop it.

But he wouldn't let her.

The tears I had been trying to hold back finally fell, gliding down my face, completely unnoticed by Emiko. Dark saw them, though.

I never wanted him to see me cry, but he would. Every time, he would be there, I was sure of it. If I did manage to live past today, he would never leave... me... alone...

But maybe that was a good thing.

"He's going to help me steal the Mirror."

Maybe there _was_ still a chance...

Dark let go of Emiko and made sure she would stay before turning to me and staring at me for a long moment. He sighed, and held out his hand, defeated. "Come on. Let's go."

I took his hand, and the old expression I had nearly forgotten about slowly dissolved from my features. Now I was sure I looked wounded. Dark would know. He could see right through me, now.

But something in his expression let me know that there was something the thief wasn't telling me.

Dark squeezed my hand before leading me out of the room.

Emiko's eyes followed us out.

. . .

After pulling me through a house of disbelieving Niwas, we flew. Only when we took to the skies did Dark release my hand, but he glanced back at me every so often to make sure I was still following him.

The police force guarding the museum was limited in number – most of them were probably gone for the holiday – so it was effortless for Dark and I to get to the Mirror.

"There it is," Dark sighed, walking over to it. He stood in front of it while I hung back, a couple feet behind him. He took off the jacket he wore and took a step closer to it.

"_Are you ready for the end of the world?" Dark asked softly, smirking. I hoped he was only joking._

_I nodded, gripping his hand with an intensity that probably could have broken it, but he didn't complain. He pressed his hand against our reflection and the glass rippled again – it couldn't have really been glass anymore. His arm disappeared up to his elbow, and then he took a deep breath and stepped one foot into it. He was going in it, pulling me with him._

"_Dark – wait!"_

_I had to say –_

"_I –"_

"Dark, I love you!" I blurted. The words echoed faintly in the large room.

Dark turned to me, dropping the jacket. It felt like time had come to a sudden halt, and I waited anxiously for him to say something in reply.

I hadn't meant to say that. I hadn't meant to... I hung my head, shaking it slightly from side to side.

"Krad..."

I snapped my gaze back up to look at him, but held my tongue, waiting for him to say more.

He walked over to me wordlessly, just to stand closer to me.

I looked right into his deep violet eyes, pleading silently with him. "I want to go back, Dark," I whispered. "I want to be with you..."

Dark shook his head, chuckling quietly to himself. "I can't go back. Neither of us can. Krad, that life is over."

His soft words wrenched at my insides like no physical force could. I backed away from him. If I could just get around him... All I had to do was touch it... right...?

I made a run for it, dodging around Dark and reaching for the glass –

"DON'T TOUCH IT!" Dark yelled, snatching me around the waist and yanking me back before I could get to it. My fingers had been merely a centimeter from the reflection...

We fell backward, Dark still clutching me by the waist. I struggled, trying to get away. "Let me go, Mousy!" I shouted. "Let go! I want to... I want..." I couldn't finish the sentence. My voice was breaking up.

Dark held me close to his chest. "Shhh," he whispered. "You can't go back, Krad. You just can't."

"Why not!?" I choked. But I was giving up despite how much I wanted to go back. Dark was here and he was holding onto me and he wouldn't let me go. There was some comfort in that.

"Because you'll be lost to oblivion if you try it," he said bluntly.

"What...?"

"If you try to go back, it won't work. First of all: the Black Wings is dead, and that world was a part of it. Second: if you did manage to get back there somehow, it would probably pick back up right where we left off, which was what?" He waited for me to answer.

"We found the Mirror in the museum," I guessed, my voice almost inaudible.

"No. We were going through the Mirror into this world. If you stepped through that thing" – he pointed to the Mirror – "you would get stuck in an endless nothing between this world and the other, because there is nothing to continue."

"Oh," I mouthed the word, but there was no sound. I was going to break out into another round of tears any moment, I could just feel it. I didn't think I ever felt so miserable.

"And you know what else?" Dark said, brushing some hair back from my face.

I tilted my head up to look at him questioningly, trying to focus on him through the blur that resulted from unshed tears. I couldn't resist him anymore, either – there would be no point in it – so I gave in to his hold, leaning against his chest.

"You've been focusing so much on getting back to the relationship we had in that stupid Mirror world, that you didn't even try to give this world a chance."

I didn't understand what he was trying to tell me.

"You have me right here, Krad," he said softly. "In _this_ world."

"Dark..."

"I love you, too. Okay?"

The tears finally spilled over, but now it was because of my sheer stupidity, more than anything else. Dark proceeded to wipe them from my face – or tried to. There were too many for him to catch them all.

"Hey, stop crying." He smiled crookedly. "You don't like crying in front of me, remember?"

I began to laugh. I couldn't help it. I laughed almost to hysterics an Dark looked so confused by it, that it only caused me to laugh harder.

"Krad? ...Are you alright?" he worried.

I nodded, shifting around in his arms so I could hide my face against his shoulder. "Just hold me?"

Dark laughed a little, too, resting his head on top of mine. "Of course I will..."

. . .

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

Well, my friends... I suppose that's it for this story. I hope you all enjoyed it!

Merry Christmas!


	22. A Quote for an Epilogue

.

.

.

_**Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me**_

"_People don't fall in love with what's right in front of them. People want the dream – what they can't have. The more unattainable, the more attractive."_

. . .

.

.

.


	23. EXTRAS

_**Children of the Mirror: Remember Me**_

**EXTRAS**

Okay, in my opinion, the sequel to anything is never ever as good as the first, but I think this turned out pretty well anyway. It was kind of cute at the end, I thought.

First of all: Of course there was music involved. I can never work without music.

So here is a list of songs I listened to while writing both _Children of the Mirror_ fics (there were others, but I think these were the main ones):

"The End" – Groove Coverage

"You and I" – t.A.T.u. (Which is totally my new favorite song!)

"Running Blind" – t.A.T.u.

"Memories" – Within Temptation

"Ready to Fall (The String Quartet Tribute to Rise Against)" – Vitamin String Quartet

"The Sharing of Tries (The Original Composition Inspired by the Music of Switchfoot)" – Vitamin String Quartet

. . . . .

Akiko Samura

At first, Akiko was just one of those random characters one would create to use up time before the important stuff started to happen. But I liked her too much, so she and Dark didn't stay broken-up for long. I relayed a little bit of her would-be personality when she happened across Krad later on, as well as her surname, which I hadn't even bothered to create before that point in the story. Akiko still didn't have a very big part, but she managed to pop up a smidge more than she originally was going to.

I guess I sort of made Akiko off of Suna Akimoto from my other fic, _I'm a WHAT?_. I suppose Dark had to have a normal girlfriend in one of my stories... Itanami was a bit of a disaster... Anyway, yes. Akiko was a twist between my Suna and an about-sixteen-year-old version of Aphrodite, just as Dark mentioned. (I've been learning about Greek Mythology in English.)

Suna Akimoto

Just a quick note: What restaurant do you _think_ Krad saw Satoshi at, anyway, hmm?

Risa Harada

Wow. This chick. Well, there was originally supposed to be this whole big conflict with Risa dating Satoshi, and that was kind of where Akiko came in. Dark was going to ignore Risa and hang out with Akiko in hopes of making Risa jealous. This plan kind of failed. And then there was supposed to be this _other_ conflict _within_ the girl conflict, and that's where Krad would come in. It didn't exactly work out that way... at all...

Dark and Krad: Their Own Bodies

Here's another abandoned thought: I was going to have Dark and Krad appear back in the bloodlines, and there was going to be much more forgotten-memory-ness and confusion and a whole lot of freaking out, but that died almost instantly, because I wanted them to be themselves, which wouldn't have worked a whole lot, I think, with that idea... _(puzzled shrug)_

More Quotes I Found (Can you tell I love quotes?)

"_Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.__"_

_**(Neil Gaiman)**_

"_You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.__"_

_**(Dr. Seuss)**_

"_Falling in love with someone isn't always going to be easy... Anger... tears... laughter. It's when you want to be together despite it all. That's when you truly love another. I'm sure of it.__**"**_

_**(? ? ?)**_

Thanks for so many Reviews!

. . . . .

Oh, wow! Look what I just found in my files! I was doing that thing where you put your songs on shuffle and then write... well here's what I wrote while listening to "Frozen" by Within Temptation (I guess it was just after I finished the first _Children of the Mirror_).

(_..._Krad's POV_..._)

_"Dark! Wait!" I wanted to tell him I loved him, but he was going too fast. Before we stepped through to the other side of the strange mirror, I wanted to tell him..._

Why couldn't time freeze?

I woke crying. I sat up, holding my face in my hands.

The worst part in all of this, was that I didn't quite know the significance of these dreams. They seemed so real. I think that I really was falling in love with Dark. I wanted to see him again. I wanted to know if he dreamt the things that I did.

Why had we lost these memories – if that was what they were?

Was there a purpose for it?

A sob wretched its way from my throat, tearing at my body as I began to cry harder. At the same time I felt ridiculous. What would Dark tell me if I mentioned this? I was crazy? My heart was so cold that I couldn't possibly love...

. . . . . . .

Ugh! I feel so stupid, now! So many things that I planned and then totally forgot about! Here's another thing in Krad's point of view:

.

"I know it doesn't make sense!" I shouted at him. "But I know these things happened! I can feel it!"

"Oh really?" Dark remarked, putting on a smirk. "I didn't think you could feel anything!"

I punched him hard in the stomach, watching as he bent over, falling to his knees and gasping for breath. "Of course I can feel!" I snapped. "Just because I feel differently than you, does not mean anything!" I knelt down in front of him and tried to tilt his face toward me, but he smacked my hand away. "Admit it, Dark... You know all of it happened." I touched his knee and tilted my head to meet his downcast gaze. "Don't linger on what our past was – I've been trying not to. Now that we have our own forms, every decision we make, everything we do, can be purely for ourselves. ...That was the false life, before. Dark, the moment..." My lips came very close to his face; close enough to feel his breath. I said softly, "...The moment you decided to kiss me... That became the reality. Our reality."

"Nothing is ours together," Dark said stubbornly. "And I don't believe these stupid dreams."

"You didn't believe in this world when we were in that of the Black Wings," I mentioned hopelessly, standing up. "Maybe you'll change your mind again..."


End file.
